high school journalism assignment.

i am in my fifth year of teaching high school english. for the last two and a half years i have been working in an alternative education program at a public school in upstate new york.

people have no concept of what alternative education is. most people just think it is another, perhaps politically correct, name for special education. well, it is not (although some students have individualized education programs or a five o'four plan--but, really a lot of kids do, even in general education classes).

so what is alternative education? well, it is different for every school. the program i work in consists of students who have been disillusioned by their home school experience because they have social issues, or discipline issues, or truancy issues, or academic issues, or have blue hair, or are gay, or enjoy celine dion and have been shunned by all of their peers. in any case, they were not finding success within the structure of their home school. so they come to us, because they don't want to drop out or sit for a general education diploma; they still want a high school experience, but on a smaller scale.

some of my classes contain three students. some fifteen. all the students spend part of their school day in the alternative education program, and spend the other half in a career and technical class (i.e. international virtual business, computer networking, fashion, et cetera).

for the most part, all of my students like the program. they even like me (even though i am beyond this: i don't care if they like me, as long as they respect me). the one thing they all have in common: they dislike work, homework and or in-class work.

as a general rule, i try to do all the assignments i give my students. if i end up hating the assignment, i change it and or never do it again. so i try to make my assignments relevant and as exciting as i can make english assignments for those that hate the subject (which is about ninety percent of my students--although, i must say, they do all the assignments i ask of them, and usually do so without complaining, unless of course, the assignment really sucks, i.e. regents preparatory work).

for my journalism class i had them set up a blog (not linked to this one). the following is first assignment that i gave them, which i did as well:


who am I?

five things that define who am i am are as follows:

food.
writing.
my father.
coffee.
music.

well, the first is pretty obvious, if i'm not working or sleeping, i'm stuffing my face with various food prodcuts. mostly cheese and chocolate. i eat the most ridiculously large breakfast every morning before work and on the weekends--mostly because i don't eat at work (they serve lunch at 10:30 and really, the only appropriate foods to eat at 10:30 in the morning is BREAKFAST). when i get home from work i gorge on dishes almost every hour (until seven, when i usually pass out in a food related coma) that must, MUST, include cheese. usually a quesadilla. or a cheese sandwich. or nachos.

writing. i like writing, although i don't fancy that i'm actually good at it anymore.

as far as my father is concerned, i lost him almost thirteen year ago to cancer. i still think of him everyday, as i am filled with constant reminders that trigger some sort of paternal nostalgia.

coffee. nuff' said. what teachers don't drink coffee? if they don't, then they cannot call themselves an educator. it is a standard in the profession to have horrible coffee breath for students to remember (and cringe in the thought) for the rest of their lives.

if you don't like music, then you are not a human. cat power. jose gonzalez. bon iver. tom waits. the hold steady. radiohead. bob dylan. life of agony.